Whooping cough experience question??

[stacey05]

Hi. I have 5 children and the first 3 were fully vaxed and the 4th one was partially vaxed (up until 4 mos) and the 5th one (1 yo) is completely unvaxed. My question is about whooping cough/pertussis. This is one of the only ones (diseases) that has me worried at the moment. I guess I always figured my others (even the partially vaxed one) had some protection against it.

I don't do well with illnesses. Now don't get me wrong...with 5 kids, we have seen our share and I do take care of my children! ) But, I absolutely hate coughing. It is a pet peeve of mine...I HATE the sound, etc. If I am at a store and someone is coughing, I will go down the other way...I will change movie seats at a theatre if someone close to me is coughing...it really irritates my husband!

My question is for those of you who have experienced WC/pertussis in yourselves and/or your kids. Is it really, really bad and really, really scary? I can't stand coughing, but worse than that I would HATE to watch my child struggle to breathe. I have read how terrible it can be and then have read that it is usually mild. Really, this one freaks me out. BUT, I know the vaccine is one of the most reactive vaccines out there. The vaccine scares me too. I know about Sodium Ascorbate (I have some!), but I was wondering how hard it would be to get it into him if he got wc and was coughing/gagging so much and all the time. And, does it REALLY help to neutralize the toxins and make the cough less severe? I am bf and would take the SA myself too.

Please help me with this. I feel pretty good about my decision to not vaccinate or at least delay a long time, but thinking about WC can throw me into a panic. It is affecting my life, to where I am not wanting my kids around alot of other kids. That is no way to live! My husband is very supportive and says that we would get through it and you would eventually get use to the coughing. I don't think so!! LOL I was also wondering how common brain damage is from WC? I know at one years old it is not usually fatal, but what about lasting damage? My ped told me that brain damage is common in infants/toddlers with wc because their airway is the size of their pinky finger....that scared me a little.

Thanks for your help. I am hoping to hear from people who have experienced/survived it and maybe even treated with SA?

Stacey

[applejuice]

Doctors misdiagnose pertussis as chronic bronchitis. If you know how that sounds with a whoop at the end, that is pertussis; that is why it is called whooping cough. I had it at age six.

I recall that Dr. Mendelsohn said that there is a a throat culture lab test that needs to be done to definitively diagnose the condition as pertussis; he was complaining that doctors at the time were diagnosing every single child with a fever and a cough as pertussis to scare everyone into vaccinating their children.

[ZoeyZoo]

The first 6 months of age are really the "danger period" for pertussis where they would likely be hospitalized. The risks go down dramatically from there. All of you kids are well past this age.

[NewMom0208]

Hi

I don't have any experience but WENDY LYDALL goes in detail on her book
RAISING A VACCINE FREE CHILD .

This book is certainly against vax, but I think it brings up useful information on how to deal with the diseases should a kid get it regardless of vax status; remember vax are never 100% effective, so knowing what to do is always a plus.

She covers most diseases.

Hope she doesnt scare you away, instead she might inspire you.
A warning, this is very rare disease, but, yes, the cough is very hard and each attack tipically ends in vomit...

Personally, I rather deal with that than the vax.. but that is my personal take on it.

hope that helps

[NewMom0208]

Sorry! I missed the fact that your youngest is 1y already. You are passed the danger zone. Home care (should they ever get it) should be more than enough...Cough cough

[paquerette]

Had it when I was 6 mo pg last time. It was about as miserable and inconvenient as having the flu I guess. Not horrendous. I didn't need medical attention or anything.

Originally Posted by NewMom0208

A warning, this is very rare disease, but, yes, the cough is very hard and each attack tipically ends in vomit...

That was not my experience. I don't think it's very rare; I just think it's rarely diagnosed. And I didn't vomit. I do have a pretty high threshhold for that though.

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by applejuice

If you know how that sounds with a whoop at the end, that is pertussis; that is why it is called whooping cough.

Not everyone gets the whoop; clinical manifestations vary. I had the whoop (and every other symptom), ds didn't.

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by stacey05

Hi. I have 5 children and the first 3 were fully vaxed and the 4th one was partially vaxed (up until 4 mos) and the 5th one (1 yo) is completely unvaxed. My question is about whooping cough/pertussis. This is one of the only ones (diseases) that has me worried at the moment. I guess I always figured my others (even the partially vaxed one) had some protection against it.

The vaccine does not prevent infection or transmission. My ds had it and he was vaxed. He passed it to me and I was UTD on DTaP. Wanted to add that I was 5.5 months pregnant at the time and had every symptom in the book and immediately prior to this I caught what I think was the Norovirus (hospital didn't identify), and from my niece I caught strep; all in the 20 days I was home for my father's funeral. I think that the strep was the worst of the three. The babe I was pregnant with is completely unvaxed.

My question is for those of you who have experienced WC/pertussis in yourselves and/or your kids. Is it really, really bad and really, really scary? I can't stand coughing, but worse than that I would HATE to watch my child struggle to breathe. I have read how terrible it can be and then have read that it is usually mild. The vaccine scares me too. I know about Sodium Ascorbate (I have some!), but I was wondering how hard it would be to get it into him if he got wc and was coughing/gagging so much and all the time. And, does it REALLY help to neutralize the toxins and make the cough less severe? I am bf and would take the SA myself too.

If you give SA at the onset of a frequent cough or sniffles it probably will not get to a 'scary' point. Also, they likely will not be coughing 'all the time'; that is why it is so difficult for Drs. to diagnose, they never get to hear it. It may only occur a few times a day.

Please help me with this. I feel pretty good about my decision to not vaccinate or at least delay a long time, but thinking about WC can throw me into a panic. It is affecting my life, to where I am not wanting my kids around alot of other kids. That is no way to live! My husband is very supportive and says that we would get through it and you would eventually get use to the coughing. I don't think so!! LOL I was also wondering how common brain damage is from WC? I know at one years old it is not usually fatal, but what about lasting damage? My ped told me that brain damage is common in infants/toddlers with wc because their airway is the size of their pinky finger....that scared me a little.

Thanks for your help. I am hoping to hear from people who have experienced/survived it and maybe even treated with SA?
Stacey

Ask your Doctor for documentation supporting his assertion that brain damage is common. I have not heard of a single case in the news, irl, or on any board. I'm not saying it can't happen, but if it was 'common' then I think more Doctors would use that to push the vax.

[Peony]

Our family of 4 all had it. Yes we all coughed a lot, even with the SA. I remember lying across the bed in the middle of the night, feeling like if I coughed one more time I was going to die, BUT that phase didn't last too long for me, thank goodness! I only vomited a few times, DH vomited so much that the first week he lost 10 lbs. DD1 coughed and vomited for months, not all the time though. And the great thing about kids is that they bounce back, she would be running around the house playing, get a coughing spell, puke on the floor, and go back to running around. The cough isn't constant. In the earlier stages, the cough can be frequent, but as time goes on, it lessens, eventually we got to point where there were days between coughing fits. Over one year I wouldn't be concerned, it would be more annoying then anything.


Wanted to add, that even when DH was coughing/vomiting so much, he couldn't get it diagnosed because he could go hours without coughing. He went to the ER several times since I was freaked out by his cough since DD2 was not even one week old, once he even had a doc making fun of him saying that there was no way he could be coughing like he said he was. In between coughing fits, you look and feel fine. It wasn't until DD1 started coughing/vomiting (I had no idea it was pertussis) and a pedi happened to hear DH cough while looking at DD1 that they realized it was pertussis.

[dutchgal]

My question is for those of you who have experienced WC/pertussis in yourselves and/or your kids. Is it really, really bad and really, really scary?

DH had it, he was affected for about 9 months in total. The month he had it the worst, there were a few nights where I sat up straight in bed, fearing his coughing was going to make him unable to catch his breath. One instance it was pretty close. I'd mentally calculate how long it would take me to take this big lug of a guy to the hospital. Yes, I thought it was horrible. He coughed for 9 months pretty much horrid and long drawn out coughs.

The doctor told him that even people who got immunized had worn out/off a lot of the effects of the vax and that you'd have to get newly vaxed after 10 years or so to get more imunity. I have no idea if that's correct, but DH had been immunized for whooping cough as a kid.

Sorry to say it, but you seem to want to know about the experience. I hope it helps you decide.

[ferretfan]

i had it aged 7 for about 3 months. i was off school for most of that, but my grandfather was in hospital battling end stage cancer, and my mum was staying with her mum during that time, so i dont know if all that school missed was due to my illness or granddad.

it was rough. i'd vomit usually every time i coughed and i still recall that some days i felt totally horrendous. but i lived, and i'm fine. my experience didn't scare me into vaxxing my dd.

[japonica]

I did have it as a teen and was vaxed for it as a kid. I had a bad, chronic cough that would leave me gasping for breath and just exhausted at the end of coughing fits that lasted for minutes at a time. No classical whoop though. The doctors we saw said it was bronchitis (funny, I had bronchitis many other times in my life and it was never as bad as that one bout) and when we said to one GP, "hey, this has to be whooping cough" he refused to even entertain the idea when he heard I'd been vaxed for it.

I was on several different types of antibiotics over a 2-3 month period. They did nothing.

We didn't have SA. It might have helped a lot. Plus I was a teen and basically lived on sugar and junk food, so that didn't help either.

So, the experience wasn't pleasant but it hasn't made me run for the vaccine though for my kids either.

[NewMom0208]

Excuse me, please
What is SA?

[applejuice]

sodium ascorbate - a form of vitamin C that is well absorbed and starts working in the immune system quite well.

YOu can probably get it at a hfs or at Bronson